This guide will help coaches incorporate goalies into practices to better develop them through the season. Designing drills with goalies in mind can help them with the skills they will use in games.

Practices typically start by focusing on skating and skill-based drills for players. This is a great time to have a coach work with the goalies on their goalie specific skating and work on specific saves. Start by having goalies run through their movements, shuffles, t-pushes, butterfly slides and pushes on their pads and post work. After that, give them controlled shots to their glove, blocker and stick to work on rebound control and warm them up for the rest of the practice.

Each age group will have different needs so here are some tips for each age group:

U9 - This is a super important age group as it will set up the goalie pool for older age groups. Run everyone through the net through the year and identify which kids enjoy the position and allow them to play the position more. Have goalies practice basic movements, shuffles and t-pushes, and have them practice going up and down into a proper butterfly. Working on glove and blocker saves and practicing angling stick saves to the corner will give them a good foundation. When running team drills try to time it so the goalies have time to get up and get ready for the next shot.

U11/U13 - Most goalies will be playing full time at this point. Flow drills are great to get goalies used to playing the full ice game. Designing drills with multiple shots in one repetition will help goalies learn to follow the play around the zone. Build some drills with a shot that the goalie can try to control the rebound to the corner. From there, players can gather the puck from the corner while the goalie follows it back to the post. A lot of young goalie’s struggle with puck watching, so having some drills with a pass or shoot option will help them start to read the play.

U15/U18 - Now goalies will have learned all the skills to play the game. Reading the play and dealing with traffic becomes even more important. Drills with multiple options for a shot or pass will help goalies to read the flow of the play. Game like zone play where the puck is moved around the zone is important to simulate what goalies will see in the game. Incorporate traffic in front of the net and have drills end by playing out the rebound so goalies must track and find rebounds. Battle drills will help with compete level so goalies can bail out the team when defense breaks down.

At Focus Goaltending we are passionate about helping goalies succeed at every level. If you ever have any questions or need advice on how to support your goalies feel free to reach out. 

We offer goalie coaching at team practices to run goalie sessions and to coach goalies through team drills. Contact us at focusgoalyxe@gmail.com for more information.

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